Hard Cover
1975 · New York
by Updike, John
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1975. 2nd Printing. Hard Cover. Very Good/Near Fine. 5x0x8. Fujita, Neil. Second printing. Spine leans very slightly forward, edges lightly foxed. 1975 Hard Cover. 228 pp. In this antic riff on Hawthorneâs Scarlet Letter, the Reverend Tom Marshfield, a latter-day Arthur Dimmesdale, is sent west from his Midwestern parish in sexual disgrace. At a desert retreat dedicated to rest, recreation, and spiritual renewal, this fortyish serial fornicator is required to keep a journal whose thirty-one weekly entries constitute the book you now hold in your hand. In his wonderfully overwrought style he lays bare his soul and his pastâhis marriage to the daughter of his ethics professor, his affair with his organist, his antipathetic conversations with his senile father and his bisexual curate, his golf scores, his poker hands, his Biblical exegeses, and his smoldering desire for the directress of the retreat, the impregnable Ms. Prynne. A testament for our times. (Inventory #: 2304990)